To the synthheads: Do you even use chorus' anymore?

[himalaya]

I love (good) chorus effects. The subtle, the creamy, the vintage and modern. In the right context, with the right sound it can add magic rather than anything harsh.

But, chorus comes into its own when used in combination with other effects. One obvious and often used combination is to have chorus+delay and/or reverb. But, I also like to add it to certain reverb effects, post-reverb, to change the sound of the reverb tail.

Erasure even wrote a song about Chorus :

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A8LV75PMseU

[chk071]

Some good points made. I definitely see the point of using a chorus over unison, to have more movement in the sound. Maybe i also simply suck at using chorus', because it usually sounds bad on my sounds.

[justin3am]

Well I like chorus.. and don't much like the sound of unison

Yeah, thats kinda how I feel. I don't use many synths which have unison. I like to use choruses which obviously sound like modulated delays rather than the the more subtle types that are used to add stereo width. I also like using chorus on reverbs to add some movement, without getting too woosh-y.

[sin night]

I use a chorus sometimes, usually in a subtle way. The MF-108M ClusterFlux is great to add some width/depth to a mono source.

I use choruses and things like that (for example MicroShift, Waves Doubler, etc) more as a mix processor than an obvious effect on a sound, so they definitely have a role, but they are not glorified as the creative effects.

Whenever unison is needed, I look for a synth with a good unison mode; a chorus provides a slightly different sound. I'd say there's room for both of them.

[Numanoid]

I love (good) chorus effects. The subtle, the creamy, the vintage and modern. In the right context, with the right sound it can add magic rather than anything harsh.

+10

There would be no signature BOC sound without chorus

[izonin]

Even the guy who invented stereo chorus, guitarist Pat Metheny, doesn't use it nowadays. The chorus days are over.

[fluffy_little_something]

I like chorus on certain sounds. With the right settings, it can add something that is just not the same as simply detuning a dozen waves.

[Numanoid]

Even the guy who invented stereo chorus, guitarist Pat Metheny, doesn't use it nowadays. The chorus days are over.

So if the creator of the effect do not use it anymore, then it is over?

How is then the future for MiniMoog, DX-7 or D-50 users

[fluffy_little_something]

One useful application is turning a normal bass into a fretless

I prefer choruses built into synths so that I can save all the settings along with the patch.

[Zookes]

Even the guy who invented stereo chorus, guitarist Pat Metheny, doesn't use it nowadays. The chorus days are over.

Pat believes also 6-channel surround will be in-home standard in some future.
Good musicians maybe are not always thoughtful to practicality.

I think it is Lyle Mays to thank for all memorable PMG sounds besides, and chorus is found common with his synths.

[foosnark]

Even the guy who invented stereo chorus, guitarist Pat Metheny, doesn't use it nowadays. The chorus days are over.

From an interview with Metheny, he hates chorus boxes and actually just played with a center channel, a 14ms delay at left, and 26ms at right, unmodulated. They were supposed to mix in the air and he doesn't think any studio recordings ever captured it properly.

And I see people saying that the Roland JC-120 (the first stereo chorus) was designed for Joni Mitchell to emulate a 12-string.

[camsr]

Chorus is great in the background, possibly cheesy in the foreground.

[JerGoertz]

Brainworx blue pedal chorus made me a believer in chorus again. It really has something smooth and rich going on which doesn't sound "synthetic" like some software choruses can.

That, waves Doubler, and NF Liquid Mod 2 are my go-to's for chorusy stuff.

[liquidsound]

I tend to only use it very lightly too, like, just a touch of wet signal, if at all. I'm not very fond of drowning a synth sound in chorus, and there's also only very few chorus effects i really like, TAL-Chorus-LX being one of them. IMO, many of them tend to add something harsh, synthetic to the sound i just don't like. Or mush the sound up, kind of.

+1 for TAL.
I use Syntorus often as well.

[himalaya]

Without the chorus effect there would be no Arp Solina and countless other divide-down string synths. No Juno-6/60, since we all know that it's a chorus unit with a synth attached.